Which is Better SSD or HDD? Why You Should Choose SSD for your next laptop?

We buy laptops and computers for either our professional needs or our personal computing needs and sometimes we have a huge pile of data that we need to save. So here comes the question. Would you go for a Solid State Drive (SSD) or a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) for your storage? Every user has different needs, different preferences, different budget, and so on. But what are we talking about here? If we don’t know about these storage components, how would we make a fair comparison and choose what is the best for us? Well, let’s find it out further.

What we know about SSD

SSD or Solid State Drive is a device meant for storage and it contains a stable flash memory which can be used to replace a hard disk, thanks to its amazing speed. It is basically a more refined version of a USB memory stick. Since there are no moving parts in an SSD, the microchips are used to store information. SSD uses the NAND-based flash memory, a non-volatile kind of memory, where you can turn off the disk and whatever stored in it, remains in it. Let’s call it a permanent memory for that matter. Technically, you can store your data in an SSD and it’ll remain there for over 200 years. Quite fascinating, isn’t it?

The working function of an SSD relies on an embedded processor and we call it a controller that functions on all the data related to reading and writing. The speed of an SSD is determined by the controller. That being said, the controller works on storing, recovering, cache and cleaning the data that establishes the speed of the drive.

What we know about HDD

A Hard Disk Drive (HDD) is a device in charge of controlling the positioning, reading, and writing of the hard disk, resulting in data storage. First introduced by IBM in 1956, HDD works fine with desktop computers, cell phones, consumer electronics and storage arrays in data centers. An HDD stores data on a rotary tray using magnetism where a read/write head hovers over the tray. It works on a direct mechanism that faster the tray spins, the faster HDD would function. A normal driver can spin up to both 5400RPM and 7200RPM (revolutions per minute) and some drivers based on servers can spin more than 15,000 RPM.

One of the most important things to note is that HDD is higher in latency than SSD, and thus they are incompetent in storing critical data that can be easily accessed. Also, SSDs are a bit high-priced than HDDs if we look at them from a price-per-GB angle. A number of big companies blend these two storage devices to avail better performance and to reduce their price.

So, now we have a glimpse of what an SSD and HDD are. Let’s compare them to find out which is better and why should you use an SSD for your laptop:

SSD Vs HDD

• Power/Battery Life- SSD uses less power, around 3 watts that provides a half an hour extra battery boost, whereas an HHD uses more power, on an average of 6 watts that results in the wastage of more battery.

• Capacity- SSDs are not larger than 1TB for laptop driver. For a desktop computer, the maximum capacity is 4TB. But an HDD is around 2TB for laptop drivers. For a desktop, an HDD capacity can go up to 10TB at its maximum.

• Cost- SSD is way too expensive than HDD taking into consideration the per GB price.

• Boot Time- SSD takes up to an average of 12 seconds of boot time and an HDD takes 35 seconds of an average boot time.

• Sound and Vibration- Since there are no moving parts in an SSD; there is no sound or vibration coming. However, in HDD, we can hear spinning sounds and sometimes a bit of vibration too.

• File Opening Speed- SSD is about 30% faster than HDD.

• Effects of Magnesium- There is no effect of magnetism on an SSD but magnets are capable of erasing any data stored in an HDD.

• Heat Production- HDD generates more heat as compared to an SSD due to its higher power consumption and the moving parts.

Conclusion

If we now compute these comparisons, we’d find that an SDD is way better than an HDD. But if you don’t pay much heed toward your computer’s speed in booting up or opening programs, then an HDD is good for you.

Preferring SSD would imply that you are fine with paying for a faster and better performance and you can work with a limited storage capacity around 4TB.

Now that people switch between storages rapidly, SSDs will be more common than HDDs. But it would be better to examine these storage devices at first.

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